Juniper Posts Loss, Sees Sales Growth

Network equipment maker Juniper Networks Inc. posted a quarterly net loss Tuesday, but its profit excluding one-time items beat Wall Street’s expectations.

Juniper predicted sales in the current quarter would rise, and it boosted its outlook for the second half of the year because of the strong business.

In after-hours trading, shares of Juniper rose $2.06, almost 10%, to $24.06, from its Tuesday closing price of $22 on Nasdaq.

Juniper, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., makes equipment used to manage data traffic on public and private networks.

Juniper reported a second-quarter net loss of $12.6 million, or 2 cents a share, contrasted with a profit of $13.6 million, or 3 cents, in the year-earlier quarter.

This year’s quarter included results from NetScreen Technologies, which Juniper bought in April. Excluding one-time items related to the purchase, Juniper earned 8 cents a share, double what analysts were expecting.

Sales in the quarter rose to $306.9 million, beating expectations. Sales in the year-earlier quarter totaled $165.1 million.